The College’s Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) has kicked-off its annual College Cares initiative. While past projects have focused on supporting organizations that serve underserved communities, this year’s project will champion access and equity in education.
The 2019 drive will focus on collecting donated books and school supplies to support Charleston-based nonprofits Reading Partners South Carolina and Teacher’s Supply Closet. OID’s goal is to send 400 books and 400 supplies to each organization in support of their missions.
Since 1999, Reading Partners a national educational nonprofit, has been working with Title I schools to support students who are reading one month to two-and-a-half years below their grade level. They also recruit and train community volunteers with an evidence-based curriculum to deliver and unlock the skills of students who struggle with reading. This has been found to have positive and statistically significant impact on three different measures of student reading proficiency, including reading comprehension, fluency and sight word reading.
Teacher’s Supply Closet, located in Garret Academy of Technology in North Charleston, provides free school supplies to teachers in the tri-county area (Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties) who work in schools where 77 percent of the students are on free or reduced meal programs. Providing donated supplies enables Teacher’s Supply Closet to serve the children and teachers in the tri-county area to meet educational and creative needs to succeed in school. To Date, they have served 8,466 teachers, given away 201,049 supplies totaling $5,802,535 with the help of volunteers.
This year’s College Cares drive will run through March 31, 2020. To serve as a donation site on campus or to learn more, you may contact OID at 843.953.5079 or email at oid@cofc.edu.
